How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster (8 page)
Read How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster Online
Authors: M.C Queen
Tags: #love, #horror, #humor, #fantasy, #hot, #teen, #free, #monsters, #guys, #free download
On the first day Akito took me on a field trip to the museum.
The aim was to
rock my world and show me everything I'd ever known was a
lie
. Those were his words, not
mine.
“
Obake have existed since ancient times and have since spread
themselves out to all corners of the globe. They take on animal
form and hide themselves within nature, feeding on human kind
wherever they may go,” he said as we walked through the ancient
history room. “But if you look closely, there's much historical
evidence of their existence which has been overlooked for
centuries,” he pointed to a picture of an ancient cave paining.
“Take this picture for example.”
“
Cave drawings?” I questioned.
“
This is more than just an ordinary cave painting, This
picture depicts large cat Obake in their transformed state. The men
you see on the left are some of the first exorcists attempting to
exorcise them with the use of primitive anti-Obake
weapons.”
“
Really?” I asked while squinting at the picture. To me it
just looked like a bunch of men hunting deers with
spears.
“
And this one,” he indicated to a small stone statue behind a
glass case.
“
An Aztec goddess of oceans, rivers, birth, and the patron of
women in labor, ” I said while reading the small name plate below
it.
“
No, an Obake,” Akito replied.
“
And this Australian Aboriginal painting?” I asked.
“
Clearly an early record of an Obake infestation.”
Akito then
proceeded to lead me around the room criticizing half the
artifacts and how humanity had misinterpreted them. After an hour I
finally began to catch on to what he was talking about.
“
I get it now! So this stuffed wombat is also an Obake,” I
said. “I always thought these guys were weird.”
“
No, that's just a wombat Daisuke.”
The museum attendant followed us everywhere we went. Staring
at Akito oddly like he was crazy. It made me realize why the man at
reception gritted his teeth as soon as we entered the
foyer.
back, Akito laid out a calligraphy set and a large stack of paper.
I recognized them as being similar to the ones I previously saw in
Mana's bag.
“
What sets exorcists apart from regular people is our ability
to use spiritual energy. This energy can be channeled through
special charms and used in the fight against Obake,” he took
a sheet from the pile and wrote some illegible symbols with the
calligraphy brush.
“
Using different combinations of characters you can create
charms with different physical effects such as fire, water, and
paralysis. They can also be arranged in combinations that create
larger effects, such as barriers or sealing charms.” He put down
the brush, picked up the paper, and waved it in the air a few times
to help the paint dry. “I will now demonstrate.”
Akito held the charm between two fingers and closed his eyes.
He
appeared to
be in some sort of deep meditation. Suddenly the paper became damp
and began to drip water. Within half a minute it completely
disintegrated. It wasn't as cool as the one which caught fire, but
it still looked pretty awesome.
transfixed. “Wow! Can you teach me how to do that?”
“
Well that is the point of you being here.”
I was expecting that
we'd play around with the cool
charms. Maybe even go out and throw them at some Obake, but I spent
the afternoon practicing calligraphy on sheets of paper while Akito
continued to lecture me.
“
As effective as exorcist charms are, they need to hit the
target before the charm is spent. Sometimes you may need to utilize
arrows, or weapons, to make sure it hits the enemy in time. The
strength of the charm depends on how much spiritual energy you use,
but the stronger the charm the faster it burns out.”
“
But when I watched Itsuki he was chanting something, and then
this giant ball of lightning came out of no where.”
“
That's the more advanced form, there's no need to get ahead
of ourselves.”
finished, Akito would glance at my paper, twitch his lip, and then
command me to practice another hundred times. I tried making the
paper catch fire, but nothing happened. Apparently the charm was
only effective when you used a special type of paper which Akito
wouldn't let me touch until my writing was perfect.
It wasn't
just calligraphy practice. The rest of my time was dedicated to
Obake research. Akito would give me various topics, and I would
have to research them and present my results to him in person. I
felt like I was presenting news to the emperor.
“
Daisuke, name the four Obake levels,” Akito
commanded.
looked down my piece of paper where I had hastily written some
notes.
“
Obake can be divided into different levels
based on their strength, and danger to
humanity.
Level four
consists of harmless Obake who pose no
threat.
Level
three
Obake
are capable of human speech and often trick people for
fun.
Level
two
Obake can
change their form into more dangerous monsters, sometimes growing
ten times their normal size.
Level two
Obake also attack and devourer
animals and humans. ”
make sure that I hadn't made any mistakes. Akito nodded so I kept
going.
“
Level one
consists of Obake who are
capable of human form and coexistence with humans. They are
especially dangerous because they're capable of tricking people for
money, or luring them away to be eaten.
Level S
,” I paused because this level really freaked me out. “Is a
new level created to distinguish the most dangerous Obake who were
previously in
Level one
, such as the
fox.
Level
S
Obake should
be treated with up most caution, and be avoided if possible. One
should not engage with a
Level S
unless there is no other option.”
I exhaled and thought I was done for the day, but
Akito
also
gave me little quizzes such as
what's the weakness of a cat
Obake? How can you tell a snake Obake from regular
animals?
And
what
element is most effective against wolves?
becoming an exorcist was my escape route from school, but I soon
realized that I had agreed to subject myself to a different type of
hell.
One day I
arrived at headquarters only to find a large set of books awaiting
me. Akito was using it as an elbow rest as he scrolled through the
morning paper.
“
Your next assignment is to write a two thousand word report
on raccoon Obake,” he said without taking his eyes off the
page.
I
felt
like screaming. I chose my words carefully to try and suppress my
rage.
“
Ok,”
I said through gritted
teeth.
“
I'll just type it when I get
home.”
“
No, hand write it, people these days rely too much on
computers,” Akito said while handing me a giant stack of
paper.
“
But my spelling is bad, I use the computer to help me
write.”
a paper dictionary.
I tried to
protest once in the first week, but Akito just shrugged his
shoulders and said “well if you don't want to do the work, then
there's no need to be here.”
I spent a
good hour contemplating quitting, but after Taisei arrived home and
showed me the pictures of his latest Obake adventure, there really
wasn't a choice.
The only
advantage to all the study was that I got to spend a lot of time
with Nina. She was often in the library researching, or practicing
archery outside. Apparently her injury was worse than she was
letting on, and Akito ordered her to rest for the next month. She
gave me small tours around headquarters, and showed me the library
and how to search for different materials.
“
Raccoon Obake huh?” She said after I told her the torment
that Akito was subjecting me to. “There should be a book somewhere
around here,” she brushed her fingers over the titles, much like
how Grandpa had when I was a child. She found what she was looking
for and handed it to me.
“
This one has most of what you need to know, its one of
Akito's favorites so you have to be careful.”
“
Wow you sure know a lot about these books,” I said in
awe.
“
No, not really, Akito made us all write the same assignment
when we were in elementary school.”
surprise me that Akito was forcing me to do things the others had
completed as children, but it ruled out plagiarizing their
work.
I often heard
Akito chewing Nina out about her progress, and encouraging her to
work harder. I once caught sight of them in deep conversation in
the hall. Nina's face was stony and emotionless, like she was doing
her best to suppress the urge to cry.
“
You really need to start training harder, you're beginning to
fall behind the others,” said Akito.
“
Yes, I know,” said Nina while staring at the
floor.
“
I don't mean to sound mean, but this is for your sake more
than anyone else. I don't want to send you home to your parents in
a body bag.”
Taisei about Nina. He told me that Nina had the skills, but lacked
the heart for killing things. She was a decent person, and even
consoled me when I felt like pushing Akito off the side of a
mountain.
“
He's not trying to be mean,” she said. “He's just pushing you
to learn faster. I'm sure he just wants you to be a good
exorcist.”
“
Yeah, maybe,” I muttered. I didn't want to admit that the
torment Akito inflicted on me was actually for my own
benefit.
I'm not one of those guys who dates multiple women, but I was
considering Nina in case Mana didn't work
out.
She
may have been two years older and resembled my sister (which was
slightly creepy) but I could live with that.
researching Obake, I also spent some time investigating my older
brother. He was pretty famous amongst the exorcists, and even had
his own books in the library. I scanned my finger down his long
list of achievements until it finally came to an end by the hands
of the fox monster. He was twenty six when he died, which meant his
death must have happened about fourteen or fifteen years ago. I
wasn't certain if I was even alive at the time. I sighed, shut the
book, and placed it neatly back on the shelf. I pulled out another
and began my composition on cat Obake, without any idea that all my
research would amount to nothing.
I should have
spent less time studying Obake and more time reading up on other
exorcists. Maybe then I would have realized that over half of them
died before their thirtieth birthday.
Chapter
9
would have to hide my new secret identity from my family (just like
they did in comic books), but Sis had me ratted out fast. I forgot
I was dealing with the daughter of Kousuke Matsumoto.
“
What's this? Sealing charms, why do you
have sealing charms in your bag?” She waved the paper in my face
before she dived her hand into my backpack for another look. “And
what's this? Anencyclopedia of Obake! Have you,” she paused for
breath, “been
exorcising
?”
how I could save myself.
“
Maybe, perhaps,” I stuttered. “I met some kids at school who
are exorcists and they let me join their club.”
“
What do you mean
they let you joined their
club
?
Since when has there ever been
an exorcist club at high school?”
“
You know. The one they have after school, at school, where
you learn about mystical stuff which doesn't exist, because there's
no such thing as Obake.”
done a great job at saving myself, but Sis was not fooled.
“
Do you take me for an idiot? I know what
this is! It even has
Property of Miyake South
Headquarters
printed on the cover. Is this where you've been spending all
your time after school?”
“
Yes. Maybe. I could have been there. Once or
twice.”